I am very grateful that our grandfather, JOHN OAKLEY, left us a journal so that we can appreciate the spirit and strong testimony of this progenitor. But first I'll tell about his parents EZRA OAKLEY and ELIZABETH DEGROOT . These good people were both born in New York, Ezra in Suffolk, Long Island in 1788 and Elizabeth on Staten Island at Port Richmond in 1795. Ezra served in the War of 1812. They gave their children the education of the moderately well-to-do, and Ezra taught the sons the trade of wheelwright using the oak trees on his farm which he cut and seasoned. He then made wheels, wagons and wheelbarrows which he sold. He also apprenticed his sons out to work so they would have more than one trade. John was sent to Brooklyn to learn the merchandising trade. Later Ezra kept a grocery store in New York City with John's help in keeping the books. They used to travel over the Brooklyn Bridge each working day. Ezra Oakley was thrifty. He owned a fifteen-acre farm with a nice house and barn and a store in the City.
Elizabeth DeGroot Oakley ran the household, doing all the sewing, washing, and ironing by hand. Candles were used for lights. Stockings were knit by hand and were done in spare time. There were three boys and two girls in the family. In their home the training of the children was paramount; belief in God, honesty in the highest sense, and living the Golden Rule were taught. Ezra said, "I have not raised a child whose word I cannot take."
Even though they were religious people they had never affiliated themselves with any religion. Through their son, John, they learned about the gospel of Jesus Christ and were baptized February 7,1841 in the East River, Brooklyn, by Elder Latson. Two years later they gave up their fine belongings and moved to Nauvoo to be with the Saints and John who had preceded them.. Ezra purchased a lot on Parley Street and built a two-story brick home and started a nice mercantile business. He purchased his goods in St. Louis, Missouri, and shipped them to Nauvoo by boat on the Mississippi. He became a very dear friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith who often visited him in his store, and who said of Ezra, "I love that man. Peace and rest be to his worn body while his spirit mingles with the spirits of the just men made perfect."
Their daughter, Mary Ann, was married to President John Taylor in Nauvoo, and so the Oakley family, including John and his wife, Mary, and baby, traveled across the plains with the John Taylor Company. They were part of the second company of pioneers who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September of 1847. Here Ezra made a new home for his family and lived out the rest of his life.
Elizabeth was said to be a very cheerful, friendly woman and had renewed vigor when an old lady. Vilate Oakley, her granddaughter, tells how Elizabeth showed Vilate her second set of permanent teeth and how she could read the Deseret News without eye glasses when she was sixty-five. Ezra and Elizabeth both lived until they were ninety-one years of age.
JOHN OAKLEY was born in 1819 in Flatlands, New York, a little town just five miles from Brooklyn. He had nine years of schooling and was always very studious. He was very religious by nature as this quote from his journal testifies.
At the age of eleven years I prayed secretly to the Lord asking Him to guide me in the way of truth and that I might serve Him acceptably. I took consolation in secretly reading the Bible though I think it was unpopular in the society where I lived. I thought I came far short of what the Lord required... |
In my infancy my right eye got injured so that at the age of twelve I had almost totally lost the sight of it, and it was larger than the other eye. From that time on, it gradually grew smaller and became totally blind... |
At the age of sixteen, my father placed me as a clerk in the mercantile business in Brooklyn. While here, four years I busied myself in spare time going to hear the multitude of doctrines preached in that city... |
At the age of twenty in the spring of I840, I heard Elder George Adams preach what is called Mormonism. I thought it the most sweet, consoling news I had ever heard. I thought to myself, is it possible, is it my lot to live in such an age and of such high privilege? Can it be true, for I have often thought how much I would have valued the privilege of living when prophets were on the earth, that I might know of a certainty the right way of salvation. |
John studied and prayed five months and was baptized in the North River, New York City, by Elder Adams in September of 1840. He tried to interest his friends but they listened to rumors about the Church and John was soon forsaken by his friends. He was successful in having his family listen to the elders and be baptized, except for his older brother, Henry.
In Nauvoo John married Mary Patterson. They had three little children by the time John was called to go on a mission to England and France in 1852. He was gone for four years. Pioneer life was difficult enough when you had your husband at home. It must have been very hard to have him gone for that long. It was also hard on John. From a letter he wrote, "My pillow is wet with tears I shed over you and our children." When John returned, Mary decided she wanted to live alone and she and John were divorced. John then married Louisa Jones in the Endowment House in 1857.
John, besides doing bookkeeping, was also a nurseryman. Later in his life his good eye became weakened. One day as he chased a stray cow from his orchard in St. George, an apple switch struck that eye and it was not many years until he was totally blind. He was tried in this way. He loved to read the word of the Lord, and also to keep up with the world through the Deseret News. His hands became expert in his work and grafting and budding trees were carried on by him as usual.
In 1879 the John Oakley family moved to Snowflake, Arizona. He died there at the age of seventy-one in 1890 of Bright's disease and whooping cough which he had caught from the children.
LOUISA JONES OAKLEY was born on the west coast of England in 1837, the daughter of WILLIAM JONES and MARY ANN DOVELL . She was described as short, having blue eyes, beautiful thick brown hair and a soft fair complexion. Her father, William, was a seaman and her mother a milliner (made hats). Louisa was a telegraph operator on the same railroad line that her father was stationmaster after he gave up the sea. Louisa was born in Devonshire, but by 1851 the family had moved to Cornwall and there discovered the gospel. William was the first to be baptized in September of 1851 and the rest of the family shortly after. The rest of the extended family, however, turned against them when they joined. Grandfather Jones became an elder and home missionary.
They heeded the counsel to gather to Zion and left in 1856. They came over on the ship S. Curling. It was an eventful voyage for Louisa as she caught the measles and also met John Oakley who was returning from a mission. John crossed the plains with the Ellsworth handcart company and the Jones waited and joined the Hodgett wagon train that traveled with the Martin handcart company. It was late in the season and the weather turned bad before they reached Salt Lake. The Indians became troublesome and it was necessary for Grandfather Jones to guard the oxen. He took cold from exposure and came down with typhoid fever. He was sick for so many weeks and traveled that way. He suffered so much he begged them to drive to the side of the road and let him die in peace. Shortly before he died he called his family to his bed and told them that he had turned their faces Zion ward and to never turn back. "If you stumble and fall back pick yourselves up and go on again." He died 23 miles west of Fort Laramie, Wyoming; that same night almost a foot of snow fell. Louisa yoked up the oxen, but threw herself over her father's grave and they had to take her away. Mary Ann had had a stroke and was unable to drive the oxen so it fell to Louisa. Her hands bled from being chapped and roping the oxen. At Devil's Gate the team gave out. It became necessary to double up and they had to leave some of their belongings there. Some were stolen. Louisa remembered well the bright moonlight night about 11 o'clock when the fresh provisions and teams arrived having been sent by Brigham Young. They had been on such scant rations for weeks that many got up and cooked hot bread on the campfire after they arrived. They reached Salt Lake Valley around the l1 of December. Today their names are engraved on the memorial at Martin's Cove in honor of those who were part of the tragic handcart companies.
From John Oakley's journal the family learned another story which Louisa herself never told. Quoting the journal:
She was raised in a tender English home sheltered and loved by her family. Also loved by a young English nobleman who believed those stories about Mormon women being kept behind high walls, and when no word came back to him from Louisa, he decided to come to Utah to rescue her. The men of the world do not think it any sin to rob a Mormon of his wife. This nobleman came across the ocean and plains to take my wife from me, but gold did not glitter in my Louisa's eyes. She chose to cast her lot with the people of God although starvation, privation, and want was on every side. |
The trip must have cost him upwards of fifty thousand dollars. He crossed the plains in four carriages bringing his belongings and eight servants. He left Utah a very disappointed man.
Grandmother Louisa gave birth to ten children, but only six girls grew to maturity. When they moved to Snowflake, there was no floor in the large room they purchased for a home. Louisa, who was tidy and thrifty, put straw on the floor and sewed gunny sacks together for a covering. She often needed to do the work of a man, since John was totally blind in his later years. Her brother, Robert, who was crippled, lived with them and helped what he could. One day while loading wheat a bag slipped and Louisa tried to save it from falling. She was pregnant and the weight of the heavy sack ruptured her side. For seven years she was confined to bed. She recovered in time for her daughter, Vilate's, wedding. She died in 1915 at the age of 78.